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HALF TIME: Nottingham Forest 1-0 Wolverhampton Wanderers. Bit tardy with this update. So much so that they’ll be kicking off again at the City Ground any minute now. Apologies.
HALF TIME: Southampton 2-0 Manchester City
High-octane brilliance from Saints, who have scored two crackers. Pep Guardiola has some thinking to do. “Maybe City need to change to different coloured shirts at half time,” quips 90s comedian Stewart Lee Richard Hirst. (Kids, refer to No5 below.)
45 min: Armstrong dribbles cutely down the left. It requires five City players to surround him and get the ball off him. The home fans enjoyed that.
44 min: The rain is coming down steadily at St Mary’s now. Positively Mancunian.
43 min: City are uncharacteristically ponderous. Very strange. “Is this is a dream or are the Saints totally outplaying the mighty City?” asks a drowsy Colum Fordham. “The two goals have both been stunners and Southampton have showed much more verve.”
41 min: City win a corner down the left. Foden delivers. Caleta-Car deals with it. It’s better from City, but not by much. “Djenepo’s goal had more in common with another Le Tiss lob – his favourite of all time against former team-mate Tim Flowers,” argues Adam Channell.
39 min: St Mary’s might not be at capacity tonight, but the home fans are in good voice. No wonder. Bazunu still hasn’t had any serious work to do.
37 min: City have regained a semblance of control. They’ll not be panicking yet: they’ve only lost one of the last five matches they’ve played in which they’ve gone two goals behind.
35 min: City finally show in attack, sort of. Grealish dribbles down the left and forces a corner. Foden swings it in. Bazunu punches clear with confidence. “Ederson might be a more important sub than Haaland,” suggests Joe Pearson.
34 min: “I can’t be the only person to have been reminded by Djenepo’s goal of a certain other lob by a Southampton player,” writes Kári Tulinius. What a player he was! And he did it all while wearing a tinfoil hat.
32 min: On the touchline, Pep Guardiola has the good grace to look extremely concerned. His team have been very much second best so far. Strange as it may sound, this scoreline, while ostensibly a shock, doesn’t flatter Southampton at all.
30 min: A reminder that Erling Haaland is on the Manchester City bench.
GOAL! Southampton 2-0 Manchester City (Djenepo 28)
If the first goal was sensational, this is outrageous! Palmer has a shot in the Saints box, but the ball ricochets and Saints clear. The home side go up the other end. Djenepo is allowed to stride into acres down the inside-left channel. He drifts towards the centre. He spots Ortega dossing around in no-man’s land, and curls an exquisite shot over the out-of-position keeper and into the top right! What a run! What a finish! What was Ortega doing?!
27 min: City have conceded first on six previous occasions this season. The stat tells us little, in so much as they’ve gone on to win three and lose the others.
26 min: Foden’s delivery is not up to much, and Saints clear. Laporte claims he’s been fouled in the box, hugged by Lavia and checked by Mara, but the referee’s not interested, and there’s no VAR. It would have been soft … but you’ve seen them given, too.
25 min: Southampton deserve their lead. City try to respond immediately, Gundogan powering down the inside-left channel. He’s crudely brought to ground by Lavia, who goes into the referee’s notebook. Free kick out on the left, 35 yards from goal.
GOAL! Southampton 1-0 Manchester City (Mara 23)
This has been coming! Sort of! And it’s a sensational goal! Ortega comes out of his box to head clear. The ball drops to Ward-Prowse, who thinks about shooting from 40 yards but hesitates and loses the ball. Phillips attempts to break, but Lyanco robs him out on the Saints right and advances down the wing. He crosses low towards Mara, who loses Walker and sweeps into the bottom right, a first-time fizzer that gives Ortega no chance. St Mary’s erupts!
21 min: Lyanco loops a pass infield from the right. Mara takes it down just inside the City box with his back to goal. He spins, making a little space between himself and Walker, but can’t keep his shot on the turn down. Deep into the stand it sails … but that’s another moment that’ll give the Saints belief.
19 min: Grealish tries to make something happen for City down the left. No. Not yet.
18 min: Southampton will be very happy with the way this match has started. Bazunu hasn’t had a save to make yet. He’s relaxed enough to ping a 70-yard pinpoint pass down the right, nearly releasing Djnepo.
16 min: Armstrong curls a cross in from the right. Mara battles to win a header but he’s swarmed by City defenders and fails to win the fight. “Didn’t Caleta-Car sponsor this competition once?” asks Richard Hirst. A Rumbelows reference, right?
14 min: Sky Sports have just flashed up Pep Guardiola’s managerial record at the quarter-final stage of domestic cups. Played 15, won 15. God speed, Southampton.
12 min: See 10 min. It’s a wise gambit by City, because over half of the game so far – 52 percent, in fact – has been played out in their final third.
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10 min: City play a bit of keep-ball to take the wind out of Southampton’s sail. Clever City.
GOAL! Nottingham Forest 1-0 Wolverhampton Wanderers (Boly 18). A breakthrough at the City Ground. Wolves fail to deal with a Forest corner whipped in from the left, and Willy Boly emerges from a melee to prod home from close range. No celebration, on account of the four years he spent at Molineux.
8 min: The second corner is worked back down the left flank to Ward-Prowse, whose deep cross forces Ortega to fingertip behind again. The third corner of the sequence comes to nothing, but that’s a really promising couple of minutes from the hosts.
7 min: Djenepo strides down the right and forces Laporte into conceding a corner. Saints initially make a mess of the set piece, but City faff around while clearing, allowing Caleta-Car to take a snapshot from the edge of the D. The ball dribbles towards the bottom left, forcing Ortega to fingertip around for another corner, this time from the left.
6 min: Salisu bashes a simple clearance straight at Palmer, who romps down the right. He thinks about a curler into the top left, but rolls across the face of the box instead for Gundogan, who drags a low shot wide left. A good chance spurned.
5 min: Gomez makes off down the City left. His cross is deflected high into the box and plucked from the drizzly sky by Bazunu. It’s not the most pleasant night on the banks of the Solent. That may or may not explain the empty seats.
4 min: Armstrong continues the Saints press in the middle of the park, but only manages to hoick the ball miles back down the pitch to concede the first corner of the match. Fortunately for the eager striker, City do nothing with it.
2 min: It’s a bright start by the Saints. They’re on the front foot and pressing City hard. Ward-Prowse and Diallo both spurn opportunities to stick the ball into the mixer. Not ideal, but promising enough from the underdogs.
City get the ball rolling. Saints snaffle possession quickly and Walker-Peters advances down the left. He reaches the edge of the City box before falling over, allowing Ortega to claim.
The teams are out! Southampton are in their inverted Rank Xerox shirts, while Manchester City wear third-choice Stabilo Boss highlighter green. Ah, those early 80s Saints shirts! Any old excuse to post the greatest First Division goal of all time. We’ll be off in a minute.
There’s another League Cup quarter-final being played this evening. Nottingham Forest host ATVLand rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers at the City Ground. It’s a 7.45pm kick off. No early goals. News when we have it.
Nathan Jones talks to Sky. “It’s one of the best teams in the world. It’ll be a really tough challenge, but we’ll have to embrace it. It’s a wonderful night, quarter-final of the EFL Cup, and it’s a wonderful occasion. We’ll have to rise to that. We’ll have to do things very, very well tonight, and a lot of things have to happen for us to win the game, but look, it’s an exciting night. The result is paramount … but first we need a performance, because if you don’t get that, you don’t get the result. But we’d love a performance and a result.”
Pep Guardiola speaks to Sky Sports. “We are still alive in everything. Eleven players cannot play every game. We need everyone to play. I’ve done it all my career, play everyone. Maybe in the second half, people will play minutes. We are playing the same way as normal. All managers are different and play different shapes. We have struggled here with Ralph [Hasenhuttl] in the past, but we have good memories too.”
Some breaking news: Southampton have signed Argentinian midfielder Carlos ‘Charly’ Alcaraz from Racing Club. The 20-year-old, who scored 12 goals in 83 appearances for Racing, has signed a four-and-a-half-year deal with the Saints. “He will give us a really exciting option and add a bit more creativity into the side, which is something that will be a real benefit to us,” says manager Nathan Jones.
Southampton make five changes to the starting XI named for the 2-1 FA Cup win at Crystal Palace. Kyle Walker-Peters, Moussa Djenepo, Ibrahima Diallo, Romeo Lavia and Sekou Mara are in for Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Romain Perraud, Joe Aribo, Samuel Edozie and Che Adams. Croatia winger Mislav Orsic, the £6m January signing from Dinamo Zagreb, is on the bench and ready for his debut.
Manchester City make four changes to the side that started the 4-0 FA Cup rout of Chelsea. In come Joao Cancelo, Ilkay Gundogan, Jack Grealish and – making his first start for City since moving from Leeds in a £42m summer deal – Kalvin Phillips. Making way: Rodri, Manuel Akanji, Bernardo Silva and Riyad Mahrez.
The teams
Southampton: Bazunu, Djenepo, Lyanco, Caleta-Car, Salisu, Walker-Peters, Diallo, Lavia, Ward-Prowse, Mara, Armstrong.
Subs: Caballero, Perraud, Finnigan, Elyounoussi, Edozie, Aribo, Orsic, Adams, Morgan.
Manchester City: Ortega Moreno, Cancelo, Walker, Laporte, Gomez, Phillips, Gundogan, Foden, Palmer, Alvarez, Grealish.
Subs: Ederson, Ake, Haaland, Rodrigo, De Bruyne, Bernardo, Akanji, Mahrez, Lewis.
The teams in social-media form.
🔵 𝗧𝗘𝗔𝗠 𝗡𝗘𝗪𝗦 🔵
XI | Ortega Moreno, Cancelo, Walker, Laporte, Gomez, Phillips, Gundogan (C), Foden, Palmer, Alvarez, Grealish
SUBS | Ederson, Ake, Haaland, Rodrigo, De Bruyne, Bernardo, Akanji, Mahrez, Lewis#ManCity | @HaysWorldwide pic.twitter.com/fEfzmlDegL
— Manchester City (@ManCity) January 11, 2023
Preamble
Manchester City have won four of the last five League Cups. They’ve won five of the last seven. They’ve won six of the last nine. They know how to get the job done. They’re hot favourites to win tonight. They’re Manchester City.
Football can be a funny thing, though. Southampton may have lost their last two matches against City 4-0 and 4-1, and they may have lost their last six Premier League games straight. But they’re also coming off the back of a spirit-replenishing FA Cup win at Crystal Palace, and they did manage to hold City twice in the league last season. So you never know. Saints reached the final of this competition in 2017 and another visit to the semis could kick-start their season of struggle. They’ll not want to end the evening wondering. Kick-off is at 8pm GMT. It’s on!
